Japan’s Largest Commercial Bank Will Try its Own Cryptocurrency in 2019
Japan’s banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group will start testing its own digital currency MUFG Coin as early as 2019. During the testing phase, 100,000 bank account holders will be allowed to participate.
Participants can convert their legal deposits into MUFG Coins through a mobile wallet application, a MUFG Coin is worth 1 yen. MUFG Coin holders can use at bars and stores that accept this digital currency.
Three of the world’s five largest bank with total assets of US$2.5 trillion, considering to cooperate by allowing 100,000 MUFG Bank account holders to take part.
They will be able to turn their fiat deposits into coins through a phone based wallet app, with one MUFG coin to be worth 1 yen.
Once the Japanese account holders have the coins, they’ll be able to use it as ordinary money for paying in bars and shops that accept it.
However, Japan’s largest broadcasting company, the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK), did not disclose further details, but added that the bank will supervise transactions to ensure that everything works as expected.
This means that MUFG Coin’s technical level information is not disclosed, so it is not clear whether it is a true cryptocurrency or just a name.
If MUFG Coin is a real cryptocurrency, then it is unclear how exactly it would be designed with the main question being what blockchain they would use.
It could be a token, which would probably run on ethereum’s blockchain with the token thus pegged to 1 yen and presumably so convertible back to it.
MUFG Coin may become the largest crypto-currency real life trial of tokenized fiat, with the bank potentially gaining profits from transaction fees.
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